On a rewarding day for wild cards, Shruti Dhawan and Isha Lakhani of India registered impressive wins over fancied opponents to advance to the second round, in the US$10,000 ITF Women's Tennis Tournament, sponsored by Rajesh Kumar Wadhawan Charitable Trust, at the Practennis School of Tennis in Mumbai on Tuesday.

Practennis girl Lakhani and Delhi's [Images] Dhawan, both wild cards, won in contrasting fashion as Dhawan shocked No. 5 seed Julia Vorobieva of Russia [Images] 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0) in a gruelling three-setter, while Lakhani crushed unseeded Cassandra Barr of Australia [Images] 6-3, 6-3.

Another Practennis trainee Krushmi Chheda was the third wild card to advance after her opponent Julia Dziedzic of Australia retired due to medical reasons when the Indian led 4-1 in the first set.

While top seed Chin-Wei Chan of Chinese Taipei prevailed over wild card Megha Vakharia of India 6-4, 6-2, No. 2 Montinee Tangphong of Thailand survived a scare against the formidable Sai-Jayalakshmi Jayaram of India before winning 4-6, 6-2, 6-4 in a contest that lasted 2 hours and 15 minutes.

Punam Reddy took much longer as she upset fancied Archana Venkataraman 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6) in a three-hour long first round tie.

Results: Singles (1st round): Chi-Wei Chan (Tpe) bt Megha Vakharia (Ind) 6-4, 6-2; Natsumi Hamamura (Jpn) bt Nudnida Luangnam (Thai) 7-5, 7-5; Shruti Dhawan (Ind) bt Julia Vorobieva 4-6, 6-4, 7-6 (0); Isha Lakhani (Ind) bt Cassandra Barr (Aus) 6-3, 6-3; Montinee Tangphong (Thai) bt Sai Jayalakshmy-Jayaram (Ind) 4-6, 6-2, 6-4; Thassha Vityaviroj (Thai) bt Karishma Patel (Ind) 6-2, 4-6, 6-2; Punam Reddy (Ind) bt Archana Venkataraman (Ind) 6-2, 5-7, 7-6 (6); Krushmi Chheda (Ind) bt Julia Dziedzic (Aus) 4-1, retd.; Kavita Krishnamurthy (Can) bt Adriana Szili (Aus) 4-0 (conceded); Mihaela Buzarnescu (Rom) bt Tara Iyer (Ind) 6-4, 6-3; Pichittra Thongdach (Thai) bt Geeta Manohar (Ind) 1-6, 7-5, 6-0; Petra Cetkovska (Czech) bt Ankita Bhambri (Ind) 4-1 (conceded); Wilawan Choptang (Thai) bt Sheetal Goutham (Ind) 6-2, 6-0.

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